Bicycle Touring Part 1

I bought a bike. It only seemed fitting after working all summer at a bike shop. It's a green Surly Crosscheck with white Ortlieb panniers. Once I had the bike the only logical thing to do was ride it out of town. The only road from Skagway goes to Whitehorse in the Yukon. From there flights were cheap to Vancouver. So on September 30th Mike and I loaded our bikes and climbed the pass out of town. After 2 1/2 long cold days (the second night dropped to below freezing, we woke up to everything covered in ice) we arrived in Whitehorse to friendly faces a hot shower and a warm house! The next day we hopped a flight to Vancouver. It was a bit of culture shock to be in a real city after 4 months of Skagway, but fun to see a new town.
The next afternoon we battled the one-way street of Stanley Park and made it to the ferry to Vancouver Island. We spent the night right outside of Nanaimo and woke up the next morning and rode south. At Crofton we caught a ferry to Salt Springs Island and rode the 20ish kilometers to the other end of the island. It was beautiful and such a relief to be off the busy Highway 1 of the main island. One more ferry back to the main island and a fast 20 mile ride to Victoria. While smaller than Vancouver Victoria had plenty to see and do.
The next day Mike and I parted ways in the morning and I caught my final ferry ride to Port Angeles, WA to meet up with Dad. He was there at the dock waiting for me when I arrived! And so began our Pacific Coast bicycle tour.

Upper Dewey Lake

Just off of 3rd ST is the Dewey Trail System. A short mile hike takes you to Lower Dewey and from there you can walk around the lake or take a right to Sturgill Land, a left to Upper Reid Falls and Icy Lake or go straight and hike to Upper Dewey Lake and from there Devil's Punch Bowl. The takes you from sea level to just over 4,000ft right in between Upper and Punch Bowl. The hike is 3.5 miles and after a nice long lunch at Punch Bowl was about a 7 hour day.

This is Upper Dewey Lake

Upper Dewey

Celebrating at Devil's Punch Bowl. There was still ice in the lake

Looking down over Skagway and the valley

24 Hours of Light

To celebrate the Summer Solstice I participated in a mountain biking relay. Whitehorse has a phenomenal mountain biking trail system. Pretty much anywhere you are in the city and within a 20 mile radius you are less than half a mile from well maintained and marked trails. 

One in particular is the 24 Hours of Light Trail, that the Contagious Mountain Biking Club of Whitehorse uses to host an annual relay event. Teams can consist of 1-8 people and you try to get as many laps on the trail as you can in a 24 hour time period. 

Our team from Sockeye Cycle lapped the trail 24 times in 24 hours and placed 3rd out of 10 8 man teams. One man, Carl, did 21 laps all on his own! 

The trail was great for everyone. It started out with a lot of uphill climbing then a few rocky sections, then a section over a ledge with a great view of the neighboring valley, then a winding tree section, then the last 2 kilometers was about as fast as you wanted to go down a dirt service road and a small down hill to finish your lap. 

Our team after being awake for the 24 hours a little sleepy, but we had a great time. 

Carcross, Yukon

Last summer I really began to enjoy downhill mountain biking. At Winter Park in Colorado you load your bike on the lift and then ride it down the ski runs. However, in Alaska downhilling is a little different. There are no lifts to take your bike up the mountain so you have to ride or push it up your self. Just about 1.5hrs from Skagway is a great little town called Carcross. It is in the Yukon and a great place to visit if Skagway is rainy and foggy. Carcross always seems to have some sunshine. Just to the south is Montana Mountain or a downhillers paradise. At Montane Mt a man named Wayne has dedicated the last 15 years of his life creating and maintain some excellent single track mountain biking trails. There are runs with jumps, mellow blues and greens and some really difficult steep runs or some with lots of rocks for the more technical rider. The best part about the mountain is you can find a run for everyone you go with. The down side is you have to ride your bike up the hill, no lifts. But it's worth it!

This is lake Titshi just past the Yukon boarder on your way to Carcross.

And we saw a bear this Sunday!

 Liz and Mike riding up the service road to our first rune.

 Coming down the trail!

Me, Mike and Liz all skipping the jump. We all jumped it the next time through.

Going over a "skinny" or wooden feature.

Skagway the town

There are very few sunny days and most of the time the weather is rainy, cloudy and windy. Skagway the name comes from the native Tlingit word Skaguay which means "home of the north wind." And most days it lives up to that name. However, we have had some beautiful days, so I took advantage of one and took some pictures around town.

This is the back alley of the shop with our row of vans we take on tour.

This is the front of the shop on 5th street.

Just a cool picture of the mountains coming directly out of the sea. They are about 4,000-5,000 feet high and extend about 1,600 feet into the sea.

This is from the end of the pier looking back at Skagway. The valley is the White Pass and one of the major routes to the Yukon during the gold rush. It is the only way in and out of Skagway by car.

Arriving in Alaska

I arrived in Skagway, AK from Juneau on a very small plane:

Here is Skagway from the plane window! On the right you can see a cruise ship in the port and it's so windy the water is rippling.

 This is the view from my bedroom window:

Splitboarding

Splitboard: A Splitboard is a Snowboard split down the middle to form two halves. The two halves are stably connected by a simple, but durable interface to form one piece. The halves can be unassembled and function as skis with skins attached for climbing snow up to 40 degrees. A great piece of equiptment for backcountry powder adventures with proper safety equiptment and avalanche training awareness.1

The beginning of any trek starts with the board assembled like skis with a pair of skins on the bottom. Skins are like a piece of carpet that only lets the skis go one direction and have a sticky substance on the underside and clips on the tail and nose to keep it on the ski.

This mornings trek to Francie's cabin was exciting. It snowed a few inches the night before and snowed the entire way up.

We are making fresh tracks. The only ones up the trail so far. 

At the top with Skylar. 

I haven't done anything to difficult. We've stayed on well maintained trails. However, the ride down is incredible. There is nothing like like. Making fresh turns in untouched powder and no is around. It's calm and surreal and peaceful. 

1) http://www.pranaproducts.com/snowboarding.html

The Cave

I have become a fan of geocaching. It's basically a scavenger hunt for grown ups.
On the south end of Breckenridge there is a trail that follows Highway 9 out of town. It starts just next to the ice rink.
This cache is a multi stage, so you have to find the first cache to get the coordinates for the second.
The cache is called Frewey's Cave. On the trail you find the first cache within 1/8th of a mile and the second cache is about 1/2 mile more. It takes you off the trail just a little, but brings you to this.

You can't tell at first, but that rock pile is a cave. It goes back a ways and if you are willing to crawl you can get several yards back into it. 

On the hike out there are fantastic views of Breckenridge Ski Resort. 

Geocaching takes me on amazing adventures!

Lily Pads in the Winter

Winter hiking can be exciting! If you pick a well tracked path you don't even need snowshoes. The hike to Lily Pad Pond is one of my favorites in the summer, so I thought I would see what it is like in the winter. From Frisco you take the Meadow Creek trail head and stay right at the fork about 1/2 miles in.
There are beautiful pictures of lake Dillon along the way.

 This picture is looking back at Frisco. Mt. Royal is the small peak in front and Peak One looms behind it. 

My hiking companions! and Buffalo Mountain in the back ground.

Sledding

We have had a lack of snow this winter in Summit County. The resorts are not fully open and the roads are clear of snow. Despite that we managed to find a stash large enough to sled on!
It even had a jump!
Thank you Hoosier Pass for providing an afternoon of fun.